With tens of thousands of companies doing business with the federal government each year, you'd think it's easy. But in reality, lots of barriers still stand in the way for many companies. "Barrier Busting" is the subject of a special session at today's ACT-IAC conference on acquisition excellence. Paul Bean, a contract specialist and business adviser at the Transportation Security Administration, joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive with more on bringing down the walls.

Let's face it. People's eyes glaze over if you tell them you're in federal procurement. It's all a boring mass of rules, regulations and bureaucracy. Right? For the upcoming generation of federal procurement people and the companies they deal with, it's pedal to the metal when it comes to acquisition. Case in point: Frank McNally, content developer at ASI government. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive from the ACT-IAC acquisition excellence conference in Washington to explain.

The Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) is now the law of the land. It's a bill designed to shake up the way government buys IT, and now that task is squarely on the shoulders of agency CIOs. Van Hitch, a specialist leader and senior adviser at Deloitte joined Jason Miller on the Federal Drive with more on how they're handling this responsibility.

The full potential of the FSS program remains untapped, says Roger Waldron, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement. In a new commentary, he offers two key contracting reforms he believes will bring the program into the 21st century.

The Office of Management and Budget has directives on shared services on the desks of agencies across government. But cultural issues may be the big holdup from the government realizing the benefits of shared services. That's according to a new conclusion by the ACT-IAC Acquisition Management shared interest group. Steve Krauss is corporate development officer at Censeo Consulting Group. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he shared the analysis from the ACT-IAC Acquisition Management shared interest group.

Chairman John McCain of the Senate Armed Services Committee says the Pentagon doesn't have a sequestration problem. Instead it has a spending problem. Bill Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy and author of the report "Promising the Sky: Pork Barrell Politics and the F-35." On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said the F-35 program is the perfect starting point for defense acquisition reform.

Contraqer President Scott Keough and CEO Dwight Gibbs join host John Gilroy to discuss the challenges IT companies are having in providing goods and services to the federal government.
February 24, 2015

FedBid and the Air Force came to an agreement to end the reverse auction company's stay from bidding on new contracts. FedBid must implement and maintain a code of business and ethics conduct program and have a third party report on its efforts for a year. Additionally, Ali Saadat, the founder and former CEO of FedBid, resigned on Feb. 5.

Talent acquisition manager Mike Bruni will discuss job trends in the federal government, the kinds of workers that agencies need, and how to land a job in what is a competitive and challenging federal market.
February 20, 2015

The General Services Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plan to release major IT and services solicitations in the coming month. The draft RFPs are part of the broader effort to change the government's approach to acquisition.

Over five years, Air Force has beat the independent cost estimates in its acquisition programs by a collective $2 billion, according to the service's assistant secretary for acquisition. Some of the savings have been returned to the Air Force's top line, but acquisition managers have been allowed to plow some of the money back into their own programs.

President Barack Obama held the first White House Cybersecurity Summit and pushed for greater sharing of information with an Executive Order. And, the Federal Aviation Administration published rules for the use of small drones over the weekend. Jonathan Aberman is chairman of the venture capital firm Amplifier Ventures and founder of TandemNSI, a non-profit. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to further discuss the news.